King farmer takes farmland protection message to the Senate

By Jennifer Anstey

For Dean Orr, farmland protection is not an abstract policy debate. It is the view from the tractor, the traffic on King Road, the rented fields in Vaughan that may one day become subdivisions, and the question of whether Ontario will have enough land left to feed itself.
Orr, a young farmer from King, recently appeared before the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry as part of its study on food security in Canada. He was invited to speak as both a farmer and graduate student, bringing together his experience on the land with his academic work in rural planning and development at the University of Guelph.
It was his second time appearing before the committee. His first appearance was during the Senate's study on soil health, when he felt an important piece of the discussion was missing.
“I was really starting to get interested in land use planning around that time, and I hadn't heard anyone talk about land use planning yet in the report as having an impact on the overall soil health in Canada,” he said. “There's nothing that's harder on it than having it destroyed, which is happening a lot.”
That connection between soil, planning and food security is now at the centre of Orr's work.
Orr operates Mill Valley Farm, a cash crop and produce operation rooted in Nobleton. The farm rents approximately 2,200 acres in King and Vaughan growing wheat, corn, soybeans, red clover and kidney beans plus some pasture-raised laying hens. Across the full farm, the operation ships about 10 million pounds of grain a year.
That number is striking, but Orr's larger concern is not only how much food farms like his can produce today. It is whether farms like his will still have enough land to operate tomorrow.
“Most of the stuff we rent is in Vaughan, and the majority of it is white belt land, and so it's going to be developed eventually,” he said. “It's beautiful Class 1, Class 2 land. It's just crazy to me that there's a city and they can just write out their farmland entirely and have none left.”
That concern is part of what led Orr back to school. He is completing a master's degree in rural planning and development, with a focus on farmland conservation and how much farmland Ontario needs to feed itself.
His research begins with a simple question: does Ontario actually have enough farmland to feed its own population?
According to Orr, early indications suggest the answer may be no.
“There's 11 and a half million acres of farmland in Ontario right now,” he said. “There's probably about a million of that that has been approved for development and just hasn't been built on yet, and so we're looking at maybe 10 and a half million acres.”
Previous research on agricultural carrying capacity, he said, suggests that a typical North American diet may require roughly two and a half acres of farmland per person per year. With Ontario's population around 16 million people, that could mean the province needs 32 million acres or more to feed itself.
“We only have 11,” he said. “So we're probably a lot tighter on how much farmland we need than what we have, which is kind of crazy.”
Canada as a whole may still be able to feed itself because of the large agricultural land base in the Prairie provinces. But Orr says that does not mean Ontario should be comfortable losing its best farmland.
“Canada is quite big,” he said. “Having to transport food 3,000 kilometres from the middle of Saskatchewan to Ontario, or 4,000 kilometres from the middle of Saskatchewan to Quebec, still requires a lot of logistics and infrastructure and time and money. If you can get food out of your own backyard, that's obviously the preferable option.”
Ontario's farmland is especially significant, he said, because some of the best farmland in Canada is here.
“Our best farmland in the whole country is in Ontario,” Orr said. “Over 50 per cent of our Class 1 farmland is in Ontario, and it's losing it at a pretty fantastic rate.”
Orr told the Senate that land use planning is fundamental to food security. Governments plan for housing, roads, water, wastewater and employment lands, but they do not plan for the minimum amount of farmland needed to feed a population.
That absence matters. Without a minimum farmland requirement, agricultural land can be steadily converted for other uses, even when the land is among the most productive in the country.
In King, Orr says the Greenbelt provides an important backstop. Unlike many communities, King has a hard limit on how far its villages can expand. That does not mean growth stops, but it does mean the community must think carefully about how and where it grows.
“We're pretty lucky in that we live in the Greenbelt, and so eventually there's going to be a hard limit on how much our villages can expand,” he said. “That requires that we start to think further ahead about how we're going to develop and really try to put gentle density into our towns.”
For Orr, gentle density does not mean abandoning the character of King's villages. It means building in a way that looks more like traditional main streets, with a mix of housing and commercial space, rather than continuing to rely heavily on low-density subdivisions and strip-mall development.
He said low-density housing consumes more land and creates long-term municipal costs that are often overlooked.
“That requires more resources,” he said. “That's more of our farmland, it requires more servicing and infrastructure per unit of housing built, and so that's going to end up directly in your taxes.”
More roads, pipes, services and maintenance all add to future costs. A better mix of housing, including medium-density options in village cores, could make King more affordable while also reducing pressure on farmland.
“As a young person who grew up here, none of the houses that are in the subdivisions that are being built now, I could afford,” Orr said. “If we didn't have this place here that we rent, if the owners decided to sell, we would just have to leave King Township.”
Orr sees a need for stronger agricultural infrastructure in King and surrounding communities. While farmland protection is essential, farms also need the services and businesses that allow them to operate. That includes processing facilities, feed mills, grain handling and value-added opportunities.
He noted that there is no longer grain buying or grain milling in the township, and that small and medium-sized processing capacity is limited. He also pointed to King's rural resiliency grants as one positive local tool, particularly for farmers interested in value-added equipment such as small-scale milling, grain roasting or egg grading.
Another local asset he highlighted is the Nobleton feed mill which he said is especially important for the equestrian community and smaller farms that do not mill their own feed.
“There's a lot of other farm communities where people have to drive half an hour, an hour to get their feed and farm supplies,” he said. “To have that still within town here, this close to an urban area, is kind of unique.”
Orr hopes to complete the writing of his thesis by the end of the year, with a defence to follow. After that, he hopes to continue farming while also spending more time on research and advocacy.
“That's kind of why I got into the program to begin with,” he said. “To make me a better advocate for farmers and farmland.”
For King residents, Orr's work lands close to home. His testimony before the Senate was about national food security, but the issues he raised are visible across the township: the value of soil, the pressure of growth, the rising cost of land, the need for local food infrastructure, and the challenge of keeping agriculture viable in a rapidly urbanizing region.
His message is straightforward. Farmland is not empty space waiting for development. It is the foundation of food security, rural economies and communities like King.